Basically we walked around Little Italy and Chinatown while the tour guide droned on from a script like the economics teacher from Ferris Bueller. There was a lot of information but nothing you couldn't get from a little typing on the Internet and watching Gangs of New York. Aside from not being very engaging, or interesting, or alive, the tour guide didn't do a very good job tying the area to the script. There was a nice nod to Doyers St. but for the most part, the tour guide could have been absent and items of interest could’ve just popped up on a mobile device. After about an hour and a half, the gangsters part concluded, we then walked fifteen blocks to Washington Square Park for the ghosts portion of the tour. No contact for the entire time, just twenty minutes of follow-the-leader. I was thinking by then, this should be two tours but turns out there is very little ghost stuff so it wouldn’t have made its own tour. It certainly wasn't worth the walk.
We’ve done a bunch of tours like this all over the country and this one falls way short. My real gripe: There was no interaction with people, businesses, or the communities we went through. The people in Chinatown just stared at us like “gweilo wandering through again”. The rich culture of these venerable regions was basically ignored. Seriously, work out something with a vendor or a merchant and add some enrichment to the tour. Making someone stand outside of Ferrara for ten minutes without getting a pastry should be illegal. Charge five more bucks and throw in a pork bun. When it was over, we were all hot, tired, and thirsty.
I’m not saying it wasn’t worth the money, I’m saying if it were free, I’d still feel like we wasted our afternoon.
Odpowiedź od gospodarza
Aug 2022
Hello! We are so sorry to hear you did not have a positive experience on the walking tour, we strive to make sure all guests have a positive experience. We thank you for your feedback, and we wish you all the best!